Hermetically sealed package



1935- E. SCOFIELD HERMETICALLY SEALED PACKAGE Filed Feb. 19, 1929 BY l 42 Q M ATTORNEY package, and is an improvementffupon' w itsfeatures areapplicable Certain types of side so a v I to be-stacked one upon anotherto 'space Patented Jeni I935 w rates" 1 W am AW mar-stand newrqrnivrzqsm rtonn- App ica or.

- 1o. The present inventio rel ase hg g m vandvmore part u yrtojaohermticamy,

commonly known as side seals."='although of t theric sfiru ib 7alclosures are adapted:

and to facilitate shipment."

stacked caps may be put into feedingdevices aps on containers as theypass. One of the difficultiesencountered which will place individual cwith these stacked caps is'that the bottomsvof the respective caps restupon the decorated parts ofadjacent caps. The relative movement betweenthe two in stacked relation may'mar the decorai" the respective capsduring f tion on the tops of shipment. 4

,Many of the sideseal closures have beads in the skirts adapted to seatgaskets, the beads being depressed during the sealing operation to forcethe gasket against the container. With these caps thereis a tendency forthe gasket to force its way out of the bead duringand'subsequent to thesealing operation. Any impairment'of the;

pressure on the gasket by the closure cap cause a defective seal;Difliculty is alsoencoun tered in the opening of these caps .due' to thefact that the lower edge of the skirt has to be pressed sufiicientlyclose to the side wall of-the' vessel to hold the gasket in place. 'As aresult,

considerable difliculty is encountered. in getting a bottle opener tohook under the bottom of the cap. The sharp hooks on the openersfrequently tear the edge of the cap, making it useless as a reseal or asa cover cap and preventing its removal by a single operation of the capopener.

The present invention aims to overcome the difiiculties of the presenttypes of caps noted above by providing a cap which is adapted to stackwithout marring the lacquer on an adjacent cap, which will form a veryeffective seal on a container, and which may be readily removed in asingle operation with a cap opener without impairing its value as areseal closure. These and other advantages are attained in the presentinvention. 1

An object of the invention is to provide an inexpensive closure capadapted to form a secure seal, the effectiveness of which is not likelyto be impaired during shipment or other handling.

Another object of the invention is to provide a secure seal byconstricting the skirt of the cap to press the gasket against acontainer immediately above the reinforced part of the by the gasket isheld firmly in position.

In addition," the cap, where- &. Closure corp ratio Island Y.,'afoot-notation of-.New York Another object of invention is to provide aosure'oap. adapted retain a gasket rigidly in position. a

Another object of the invention is the provision urefgcap adapted tostack with other closure aps,fthelower edge thereof resting-upon thedecorated covers without marring the decoratrons. I

Another object of the invention is to provide a closure cap adapted towithstand pressure apl0 plied by a hooked cap opener so that the cap canbeireadily removed without destruction.

Another object of the invention is to provide a method of sealingwhereby a cap is reinforced immediately below the gasket, and the gasket16 is'pressed against a container immediately above the reinforcement toefl'ect a secure seal.

Other and further-objects of the invention will be obvious upon anunderstanding of the illustrative embodiment about to be described orwill 20 v be indicated in the appended claims, and various advantagesnot referred to herein will occur to one skilled in the art uponemployment of the invention in practice. -A', preferred embodiment ofthe invention has 26 been chosen for purposes of illustration anddescription and is shown in the accompanying drawing, wherein Fig. l isa sectional view of stage 'of manufacture; 1 Fig. 2 is a sectional viewof the completed closure cap; and v Fig. 3 is a sectional viewillustrating a gasket applied to the closure cap shown in Fig. 2;

Fig. 4 is asectional view illustrating caps in 35 stacked relation;

Fig. 5 is a fragmentary sectional view illustrating a closure capapplied to a container;

Fig. 6 is a fragmentary sectional view of a different form of cap; I

Fig. 7 is a fragmentary sectionalview illustrating-the gasket applied tothe cap; and

Fig.8 is a fragmentary sectional View illustrating the closure appliedto a container.

Referring more particularly to the drawing, 4 there is shown a closurecap having a cover portion 1 and a depending skirt 2 with a bead 4therein. The lower edge of the skirt isrolled inwardly to form aninturned wire edge .5 adapted to serve as the lower side of the bead 4and 50 as a support for a gasket 6. While the cap can be formed in anysuitable manner, preferably the blanks are stamped from sheets of tininto the form shown in Fig. l. Thereafter the blanks are placed in arolling machine or operated upon by a blank in'the first dies to form aninturned wire edge at the bottom thereof. This inturned edge extendssufficiently far inward to hold a gasket in place.

The gasket may be applied by machinery or by hand and is generallyslightly larger than the skirt of the cap so that it will pressresiliently against the side of the bead and can be held in position bythe relatively narrow inturned portion at the bottom.

In the sealing operation, suitable dies operate upon the bead in asubstantially vertical direction to transform it from the shape shown inFig. 3 to that shown in Fig. 5. The.l ower part of the bead is pressedinwardly and upwardly as shown by the arrow '7. The inward constrictionof the lower part of the bead confines the gasket between the wire edge5 and the upper side of the bead and the upward constriction of thebeadpresses the gasket more firmly into engagement with the container. Byreason of the reinforced lower edge, it is possible to leave a greaterspace between the metal of the cap and the side of the container withoutpermitting the gasket to be forced therebetween. The reason for this isthat with a strong lower edge, the cap remains in the set positiondetermined by the dies whereas with a single thickness of metal at thispoint there is likelihood of a stretching action which is not uniform inall cases and, hence, greater care must be taken to prevent the capbeing too loose.

In removing the cap an ordinary hooked bottle opener may be applied totheclosure similarly to the removal of a cap from a soda pop bottle. Thehook engages the wire edge 5, the curved portion of the edge furnishingan excellent hold for the opener, to pull the cap over the side of thecontainer. Due to the several thicknesses of metal in the reinforcededge, there is no likelihood of the hook cutting through the metal orbreaking it in any way. Hence, the cap may be removed in a singleoperation or in a plurality of operations, as desired. Distortion of'thebottom of the cap is minimized and this permitsa cap to be used as areseal closure or as a cover cap for the container while the contentsare being consumed. An additional feature of the wire edge 5 is that itgives a very smooth surface to the bottom of the cap which permits thecaps to be stacked one upon another, asshown in Fig. 4, with the rolledlower edge engaging the upper side of the bead of an adjacent cap. It iscustomary to lacquer the caps or otherwise decorate them to improvetheir appearance, hence the engagement of a rough edgewith the lacqueror other decoration scratches and mars the caps. In many instances, thebeauty of the cap sells the product and slight damage to the externalportion of the cap is a serious handicap. In the present cap, the rollededge 5 presents a coated fiat surface of metal which rests upon theexternal portion of the bead. The gaskets 6 engage the conical parts ofthe caps and prevent any substantial movement so that scratching orother damage to the cap is eliminated. j

A different form of closure is shown in Figs. 6 to 8 inclusive. It iswell known in the sealing art that the rolling inward of metal isdiflicult due to the fact that the metal must be compressed during therolling operation. There is a tendency for the metal to wrinkle duringthe pressing operation, which hinders the rolling and mars theappearance of the cap. On the other hand, this difilculty is notencountered when the free edge of the metal is rolled outwardly becausethis involves a stretching operation. In Figs. 6 to 8 a blank, foreiia'mple a blank similar to that shown'in Fig. 1, is formed with a wireedge 8 rolled outwardly and set inwardly, as shown in Fig. 6, to a pointwhere it is substantially directly below the depending side of the bead.In other words, the plane of the skirt of the cap passes throughsubstantially the center of the rolled edge. The portion of the wireedge 8 extending inwardly beyond the skirt of the cap forms the lowerside of the bead and hence, is a support for the gasket. The sealingoperation for applying a cap to the container may be substantiallysimilar to'that shown in Fig. 5 or it may be as shown in Fig. 8. In thiscase, suitable dies are applied to force the entire bead upwardly andinwardly and the lower portion of the bead downwardly. A slightlygreater space between the lower edge of the cap 8 and the sidewall ofthe container may be allowed, if desired, by reason of the seal. Thisfacilitates removal of the cap and 20 is generally advantageous. In.general practice, the caps are manufactured as described above, stackedupon each other as shown in Fig. 4, after the gaskets have beenassembled with the caps and shipped to canners for application to con-25 tainers. The caps are placed in suitable feeding machines which placethe caps on containers as they pass to a sealing machine. The sealingmachine constricts the bead of the cap to form a tight hermetic seal,as'shown in Figs. 5 and 9 of 30 the drawing. 7

It will be seen that the present invention provides a construction whichmay be readily and inexpensively manufactured. Further, it is adapted toform a more secure seal than those heretoas stacked without fear ofmarring the decorated 4.0

portions thereof. The removal of the caps is facilitated due to the factthat the cap is fully capable of withstanding the concentrated pressureapplied by an opening instrument such as a hooked bottle opener.attractive package and is otherwise fully capable of meeting therequirements of the consuming public. 7

'As various changes may be made in the above The cap forms a very 45embodiment without departing from the spirit 60 of: the invention, allmatter herein is to be interpreted as illustrative and not in a limitingsense. Having thus described my invention, I claim: 1. A closure capcomprising a cover portion, a

depending skirt adapted to receive a gasket, a 55 comprising a coverportion, a depending skirt,

and a continuous rolled edge at the bottom of said skirt, said edgebeing rolled outwardly and bottom'of said skirt, said edge being rolledoutwardly and set inwardly with respect to the skirt to form the lowerside of said bead and to form a support for the gasket.

5. A closure cap comprising a cover portion and a depending skirt havinga bead therein adapted to receive a gasket, a gasket in said bead, and acontinuous rolled edge at the bottom of said skirt, said edge beingrolled outwardly and set inwardly with respect tothe skirt to form asupport for the gasket in said bead, the outer portion of the bead abovethe rolled edge being substantially cylindrical.

6. A sealed package comprising a container,

a closure cap having a cover portion and a depending skirt, the loweredge of saidskirt being rolled outwardly and set inwardly to form asupport for the gasket, and a gasket supported by said rolled edge, saidskirt and said inwardly set rolled edge being constricted to force saidgasket against the container to form a secure 8. The method of forming aclosure cap with an inwardly extending part for supporting a gasket,which method comprises rolling the lowerv edge of the cap outwardly intoa rolled edge, and simultaneously setting the entire rolled edgeinwardly so that the outwardly rolled edge extends inwardly of the planeof the skirt of the cap to form an inwardly extending projection adaptedto support a gasket.

9. The method of forming an article of manufacture comprising a bodypart closed at one end and open at the other with an inwardly extendingpart at the open end of the body part, which method comprises rollingthe continuous free edge of the body part outwardly into a continuousrolled edge and setting the rolled edge inwardly to form an inwardlyextending smooth projection at the open end of the body part.

10. A sealed package comprising, in combination, a container and aclosure cap having a cover portion anda. depending skirt, a bead in saidskirt adapted to receive-a gasket, the bottom of said skirt being rolledoutwardly into a rolled edge, the bottom of said skirt and said rollededge being set inwardly to support and compress the gasket to form asecurely sealed package.

EDGAR SCOFIELD.

